PROSPECT HEIGHTS — A construction worker at the Barclays Center died Tuesday when he was caught underneath steel joists that fell from a truck at the arena, officials said.
The iron worker, 52-year-old Peter Zepf of East Islip on Long Island, was part of the team installing a “green roof” on top of the center, police said. A representative from the arena said he was helping to unload the steel joists from a truck to a crane when several pieces fell on top of him.
“We are all devastated by what happened. All of us at Greenland Forest City Partners and Barclays Center extend our most heart-felt condolences to the worker's family and friends,” said spokesman Joe DePlasco in a statement.
EMS workers responded to the accident at Fort Greene Place and Atlantic Avenue around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, officials said, rushing the worker to Brooklyn Hospital in critical condition, where he later died.
Zepf was a subcontractor with a company hired to erect steel for the green roof project, officials from the arena said. He was also a member of Ironworkers Local 361, they said. An inquiry to the union was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Workers have been constructing the green roof's steel framework since the fall. When complete, it will support live sedum, or grass-like plants similar to what covers the subway entrance outside the arena.
Barclays Center Community Affairs Senior Manager Terence Kelly called the accident "tough" and said it was "a terrible loss."
“Barclays Center and Greenland Forest City Partners are very serious about the safety and oversight of the project. There’s been very, very few serious injuries throughout the entire decade of construction since the project started," Kelly said at the 78th Precinct community council meeting on Tuesday night.
“Our condolences go out to the family and certainly the construction colleagues on site," he said.
Officials from Barclays said construction halted immediately following the incident as city agencies work to determine its cause.
With reporting by Leslie Albrecht
